As if it’s not tough enough for an arcade to make a go of it in 2010, the owner of Beacon, NY’s Retro Arcade Museum has to battle town laws that ban pinball. After a year and a half in business, officials shut down the pinball palace.

CNN reports Beacon’s law is a relic from the middle 20th century, when several major cities outlawed the game, believing pinball arcades were fronts for mob operations.

The town governor has spoken out in the arcade owner’s favor and the city council is working on legislation to tweak the law and let the arcade re-open legally.

Until then, in a parallel, imaginary universe, the mob fumes, bitter that its coke funds are clogged up and unable to be laundered through the operation.

Play pinball here, go to jail [CNN via Game Informer]

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